Financial Updates at Single Ma’s Queendom
Lots of random thoughts, so I’ll do a random update post:
Unexpected Money
When I filed my taxes this year, I had to claim the relocation benefits I received from my last employer as income, but I couldn’t write off the relocation expenses as deductions. Weird, I know, employer requirement, hard to explain. Anyhoo, because of this, I had to file a separate form with my employer and they have a process to evaluate what my tax liability would have been without the extra income. Any excess between what I paid and what I should have paid is sent to me via a refund from the employer, not Uncle Sam. Long story, short. I received the unexpected refund this week. Over $1,200.
Emergency Fund
As of today, I made the final transfer to meet my $20k e-fund goal! Because of the unexpected refund above, the balance now sits at $20.7k. I also set up a $100 bi-weekly payroll allotment for the e-fund. All extra above $20k will be earmarked for “non-retirement investing.” When it reaches $3k, I will open that long awaited Vanguard account, then redirect all extra money to to the new account.
Payday
My payroll problems were finally corrected. Benefits, tax exemptions, allotments, 401k match, retro payments/refunds, etc. - everything is kosher now. Thank da lawd! July has 3 pay periods and I plan to spend the extra cash on my rental property.
Medical Expenses
As of yesterday, the braces are completely off. BabyGirl was given two sets of retainers plus a night guard. I also made the final $250 payment, a total of ~$4,000 for 2 years of orthodontia care. Her teeth are beautiful, but with all the back and forth visits, I’m glad it’s over!
Precious’ vet bill this year was $248.69, which is $65+ more than previous years ($185 in 2007 and $177 in 2006). I’ve never had an annual vet bill more than $200, so I asked for a line by line itemized report of this year and last year. Although the secretary tried to explain the difference, I had to see for myself. About 10% was due to regular inflation that occurs every year, but one procedure was an additional $40 by itself. WTF! The reason? They send the culture to an outside lab for testing/examination and they have to pay extra for shipping/transportation expenses. In other words = FUEL!! I tell ya, this fuel crisis is hurting everything!
Car Insurance
Due to pure laziness, I didn’t research for better rates. My new 6 month (Jul-Dec) premium is $409.10 and it’s due next week. I thought this was a savings from the $468 that I used to pay, but I forgot it was reduced to $406.30 last December when I increased my deductible from $500 to $1,000. So in essence, this 6 month premium increased by $2.80. Not a lot of money, but it definitely shouldn’t be going in the wrong direction. That’s what I get for being lazy. I’m going to pay the premium in full this time, instead of the monthly payment plan. Other than saving the $1 processing fee, I just want one less bill to worry about every month.
Rental Property
My tenants are moving out this month and I’m meeting two potential tenants tomorrow morning for a scheduled tour. One is coming at 10 and the other at 11. It’s a 2 hour drive and I’m not looking forward to it. After the last tour, I’m meeting a girlfriend for lunch. She’s offered to show the property for me in the future, so I won’t have to drive down there again. But if the property isn’t rented by the end of this month, I’m turning it over to a property management company.
Edit to Add: Thank you all for bringing the blog problem to my attention. I appreciate all of the emails. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the post or why it was cut off HOURS after I published. In the original post, I provided a few updates about my summer vacation plans and my feelings about BabyGirl’s summer away, but it’s gone now and I don’t know how to fix it.
While I’m on the subject, I haven’t been blogging regularly because I’ve had quite a few computer issues lately. I don’t know if I have a computer virus or if my blog has been hacked - maybe both. So much for the Norton All-in-One Computer Protection, huh? My spreadsheets are damaged, which means all of my expense tracking and net worth details for the entire year are GONE. I’ve tried to do a system restore and file recovery, to no avail. I also keep getting “404 errors” when I publish or update posts on my blog. And some evenings, I can’t get online at all or the “high speed” connection is extremely slow. The latter may be attributed to the terrible weather we’ve had in the past few days, but trying to get online or attempting to write a blog post is challenging.
It’ll take weeks to get my spreadsheets back in order and I’ll need help with the blog issue, but everything will be fixed - eventually. If it aint one thing, it’s another. But eh, so is life. *shrug*
Blog wit’cha soon.
